Weekend At Daniel's Hockey Edition (silicon Trip Report)

Here is the story of the weekend from my perspective.Weekend at Daniel’s: Hockey Edition began with the nine winners and guests meeting for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the pool at Caesars Palace, and ended with me running over the field at the final sit-n-go of the weekend. (More on that later…) For those of you that don't know this weekend was the grand prize in a series of hockey pools run by Daniel and FCP during the 2005-2006 NHL season. You can find more details here http://www.fullconta...showtopic=46448The entire trip from beginning to end was a first class experience. Many thanks to Jeff and Brandon, our hosts and tour guides for the weekend, to Patty, Daniel’s totally organized assistant, Lori and Daniel’s mom for hosting us for lunch on Sunday and to Matt who guided the whole Survivor Hockey experience and for whom I understand congratulations are in order.As we were milling around prior to the kickoff lunch I overheard one of my fellow winners remark that he had asked the restaurant hostess if there was a group booking, only to be informed that the restaurant did not take reservations. Yet sure enough there we were – group table for 20 in the prime location. The tone was set for the weekend – the regular rules were not in effect.Our group was a great mix of people and we settled into a groove with each other right from the start. Over lunch Brandon and Jeff explained how the weekend would work. There was to be a series of team challenges culminating at a pool tournament after dinner on Sunday. Points would be awarded and tracked and the events would kick off with a trip to Caesars sports book. Each of us was handed a crisp fifty dollar bill and told to try and win the most money possible betting on any sport that closed by noon on Sunday. After placing our bets we were to make our way into the poker room where Daniel would be joining us for a two-table tournament.Judi and I placed our bets then mingled in the poker room. While we were there Caesars was recording a tournament for television twenty feet from our location while two tables the other direction held a high stakes game featuring bracelet winner Eskimo Clark, a very loud Sean Sheikan, and, wearing a very nice silk shirt while working the room and giving massages, legendary cash game player Chau Giang. Several Ferraris worth of chips were flying around on that table.We were taking our seats when a noticeable increase in the buzz in what was already a noisy room heralded Daniel’s arrival. Daniel proved to be a congenial and charismatic host, quickly learning everyone’s name and keeping up a running banter during our tournament. It was a bit of a surreal experience, playing poker with one of the greats on a raised platform at one of the world’s legendary casinos. The experience must have been quite intimidating for some of the wives and girlfriends, most of whom did not play, though a lack of experience would prove not to be a detriment for this tournament. A thick group of railbirds quickly formed, cameras flashing continuously, and as people were eliminated we became quite good at answering questions from the crowd on how much our buy-in to the tournament was and how regular schmoes like us came to be there. I wish I could I could tell everyone how my brilliant play took me heads up against Daniel with me emerging victorious – but that would by lying. In reality my pocket queens were beaten by Brett’s A9o with all the money going in preflop. With barely enough left over to pay my blind I was then eliminated on the final table bubble when Daniel’s AQo held up against my A7d. All in all it was a great experience. My highlight came when when I did manage to get Daniel to lay down a hand pre flop with a brilliantly timed bluff (that is my story and I’m sticking to it).The final group of four players included Rich, who makes his living as photographer of cartoons (sorry man - I couldn't resist), Daniel, and poker neophytes Victoria and Jen. Victoria made the play of the day when after Daniel had moved in on her big blind, coolly looked straight at him and asked how much money more money he had. Somebody caught it on video – well worth seeking out and watching especially for Daniel's reaction. Jen and Rich ended up heads up, and Jen, after some coaching from our bemused dealer on the mechanics of betting, ended up as the winner of the weekend’s first contest.From Caesars we caught limos over to ESPNZone’s private room to watch the game 3 of the Edmonton-Carolina Stanley Cup Final. At the restaurant we were joined by Big Matt and Little Matt. Little Matt has faced lots of challenges in the last few of his 13 years of life and Daniel has been a big part of his ongoing recovery. Little Matt is a true story of courage and determination and was a great inspiration over the weekend and it is a testament to Daniel's humanity in the role he plays in Little Matt's life. The kid’s not a bad poker player too taking me out early during our Sunday tournament then cruising all the way to a second place finish.Despite some misguided chanting of U-S-A, U-S-A from the American part of our contingent the Oilers managed to squeak out a win much to Daniel’s delight as he had placed a fairly large bet on the Oilers to win. During dinner we had competed in picking period ending scores for points and then wrapped up dinner with a hockey trivia contest. For the record I will now never forget that Brian Boucher played for the Philadelphia Flyers and my utmost thanks to Judi who knew the final score in the USA’s 1980 Gold Medal game. Kudos to Ed for scarfing down (and keeping down) and entire plate of carrot cake to win a $500 sidebet. Hey Ed, at least it wasn’t wasabi this time!After dinner we headed up to play some video games before getting into a bus for the ride back to Caesars. By this point it was getting late by east coast time so the group started to break up. Judi went to crash; Daniel, Jeff and a few of the crew headed out to a night club; and a bunch of us went to play some poker. In hindsight I should have gone to the nightclub. I got killed at the table when my made king high flush was busted by a guy with 9-3 on a board of Kc 9h 3h Jh. With all the money in on the turn the river was the inevitable 3s. I rebought for a few hundred more but could barely keep my eyes open at that point. Note to self – stick to limit instead of no limit when running on fumes.Sunday morning Judi and I watched the Mexico-Iran game for a while. It’s amazing what having a few bucks on the game does for your interest level – especially when it’s for points in a competition. Meeting up at the bus we all took a meandering drive over to Daniel’s house for brunch. Our driver took a confusing route filled with U-turns cunningly designed to prevent us from finding our way to Daniel’s house again . When we finally figured out the route and arrived the first sight we saw was a large pickup parked in the laneway with WSOP 04 plates. I wonder who’s vehicle that could possibly be?Daniel greeted us and welcomed us into his home – a very gracious and extraordinary gesture given that we were really just a group of strangers who won a contest. Over sandwiches and a few beers we played NBA Jam, watched videos of Phil Helmuth melting down on High Stakes Poker, played a sit-n-go at which yours truly had the honor of busting out first, and held our next event, the Golden Tee Classic. I managed to make the final four on Golden Tee, when, on the first hole, Daniel made an eagle by holing a 200-yard fairway shot. I hope that kind of luck carries over to the real course Daniel! I did manage to take second by making birdie and salvage a little bit of my pride wounded by my early poker exit.While at Daniel’s I had a chance to spend some time with his mother, a remarkable lady who is obviously very proud and very close to her son. I also met Lori who struck me as a very solid and down to earth person. Our Drill Sergeants Jeff and Brandon rounded us up, and accompanied by a tub of full of ice and beer, we headed off to Fast Lap for our next challenge, high speed indoor go kart racing. On the way Daniel regaled us with stories from his golf game including the fact that Doyle Brunson drives his kart right up to the ball – even when it’s on the green – and the that one of the game’s regulars, whose name will remain anonymous, has the remarkable luck of always finding his errant balls coming to rest with a good lie and a clear view of the green. As Doyle said to Mr. Lucky Nuts, “Now I’m not saying that you’re cheatin’ – but I’m a mighty suspicious!” Daniel and I also came up with the next smash reality TV show – sure to be seen soon on a channel near you. Daniel let me know where I should send the treatment I’ve developed For those of you who have never tried indoor go karts, these are not the putt-putt machines of yesterday. These open wheel racers easily reached 40 miles per hour and required skill and fitness to guide them around the tight indoor track. After donning our head scarves and helmets – which should make for some funny pictures – we split into groups and started racing. After a bunch of laps they took everyone’s fastest qualifying lap and seeded us into the championship and consolation races heats. I managed to place on the starting line just beside Ryan who qualified for the pole in the championship heat. Ryan and I, hotly pursued by Daniel, traded the lead for 5 or 6 laps before my rear tire blew. Determined to finish I was pushing my cart as hard as possible while glumly watching kart after kart pass me by. It was when I starting smelling gas and looked behind me to see a trail of gas spewing from the back of my kart that I decided discretion was the better part of valor and pulled off to the side. Sure enough my fuel line had disconnected and I was one spark away from an explosive ending to the weekend. Still I had managed fast enough times to qualify for the final though my start position was now from the back of the field. Daniel and Ryan were one-two, and if not for a catastrophic mechanical failure on the part of Daniel’s car it could have been an exciting finish. As it was Ryan romped home while I managed to claw back a spot or two and finish sixth. My apologies to Jeff – I saw a hole and went for it buddy and Daniel you did indeed have the fastest lap times before the kart gods dealt you that bad beat! Little Matt came in second with a great display of skill and I get the feeling his trophy is going to occupy a place of honor at his house.Hot, sweaty and more tired than any of us expected we piled back in the bus for a quick trip back to Caesars to freshen up before our final event. My thanks to Carlo and Kim for offering the use of their room as Judi and I had already checked out. Meeting back up at the bus we made our way to PT’s pub for dinner and the final event, the pool tournament. Prior to the start of the tournament Brandon rejoined us from Caesars Sports Book where he had been cashing out our various sports bets from the first event. Happily Judi and I squeaked out a win in the event thanks to the 41 year old Bernard Hopkins pulling out an upset decision victory over Antonio Tarver which paid out 3-1. I will say that as a group we should stay away from betting sports. Only two or three of us increased our bankroll and there were an awful lot of goose eggs laid by various teams.Playing pool we quickly discovered that Ryan, erstwhile Calgarian and online prop player, was also a major shark. He made short work of Daniel in the first round then proceeded to steamroll the rest of us to take first. With that victory Ryan and Jenn sealed first place overall. Second, thanks in a big part to Jen’s win at the poker table, were Leo and Jen from Carolina, and in a tie for third were the powerhouse teams of Ed and Victoria and yours truly and the missus. Jeff passed out the cash prizes to the winning teams as we all made our way back in the bus to Caesars.Back at Caesars there was time for a few last photos with Daniel before he and Patty headed off into the sunset. Jeff hooked the rest of us up with a private table in the poker room for one last $20 single table sit-n-go. I wanted to play but had a flight to catch in just over two hours. Of course being the sensible, level headed guy that I am I took the safe route and joined the game I tell you, knowing that you needed to leave the table 10 minutes ago in order to get your plane makes you become an extremely aggressive player. After my Q-10 busted Ed’s A-Q (mine were suited though Ed), A-J busted Leo’s A-Q and A-9 busted Rich’s A-K, I finally started to catch some cards! Going into the bubble as the big stack and now more than 30 minutes behind schedule I started pushing with any hand better than 2-3. Sure enough the miracles kept coming and I ended up the winner! Good thing too as the final poker table winnings were just enough to pay for the bribe to bypass the 30 minute taxi line and secure an emergency limo ride to McCarran Airport and our red-eye back to reality.All in all a great weekend that continues the first class experience we all have with Full Contact Poker. Many thanks to Daniel and the team for the events, the experience and the great time we all had. Best of luck to Daniel in this year’s WSOP and more importantly good luck out on the links.Cheers,Steve

Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.

Excellent write-up Steve, very beautiful yet also so much information. I don't think I can add anything else, except how you failed to mention sucking out on me w/ 72o vs. AA when we were heads up in the final sit-n-go! Hehe, j/k.I haven't seen any pictures up yet of the weekend, so I thought I'd link one to get the ball rolling. Below is where Victoria took out Daniel as Steve so aptly described. Daniel is demanding a new river (a second time, since the first new river paired her i think):Can't wait to see everyone else's pictures, especially the indoor go kart racing since my camera was full by then!

Nice write up and Nice Picture. I replied to Leafs31's write up that I have everyone's e-mail address and will e-mail something out tomorrow about getting all the pictures to everyone and maybe get some Idea's of where to post them.

Nice write up and Nice Picture. I replied to Leafs31's write up that I have everyone's e-mail address and will e-mail something out tomorrow about getting all the pictures to everyone and maybe get some Idea's of where to post them.

There he is, whats up E-money! Jen and I decided no drinking for 2 weeks after that weekend! haha

There he is, whats up E-money! Jen and I decided no drinking for 2 weeks after that weekend! haha

Yoda!! USA! USA! lol what's up man. Hey we created a monster. Last night Tori wanted to try online poker with my help we played the 5 rebuy and we took 7th for $900 NICE.. how was the trip home? GO CANES!!!

Yoda!! USA! USA! lol what's up man. Hey we created a monster. Last night Tori wanted to try online poker with my help we played the 5 rebuy and we took 7th for $900 NICE.. how was the trip home? GO CANES!!!

OK Ed, when does the Tori protege contest kick off. I need help from somewhere

OK Ed, when does the Tori protege contest kick off. I need help from somewhere

I think Tori and Jen should start classes I know I would pay. hey all I sent out an e-mail about the pictures this morning but got failures from Geoff MacDonald and Leo so let me know your e-mail address once again and I will reforward you the e-mail.

I think Tori and Jen should start classes I know I would pay. hey all I sent out an e-mail about the pictures this morning but got failures from Geoff MacDonald and Leo so let me know your e-mail address once again and I will reforward you the e-mail.

I believe I replied to all with the snapfish info using Geoff's correct email address.